The war and its reverberations in the Asia-Pacific region – as well as the growing contest between the United States and China – will be overarching themes at the security summit, the sidelines of which have long provided a platform for top security officials to meet face-to-face.Īttendees are expected to include US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov. The grinding conflict in Europe may also accelerate trends in the Asia-Pacific region toward increased military spending and efforts to develop military capabilities, said a report released Friday by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), which hosts its annual Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore this weekend. Fewer commuters depresses occupancy levels in office buildings, and also affects traffic for commercial sites such as shopping malls and entertainment venues, making them less profitable bets for investors.Ī painful mix of downward pressure on asset prices, higher borrowing costs, and tighter lending by regional banks is especially bad news for the commercial real estate industry, which is heavily reliant on debt financing from smaller lenders.China remains the “leading long-term challenge” to the existing international order and there is no evidence that Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine has changed Beijing’s thinking around “the timescale or methodology” for any potential attack on Taiwan, a top strategic think tank said ahead of a regional security summit in Singapore. The shift to remote working since the pandemic also poses a threat to commercial real estate values. They may also be more wary of lending given the prospect of a recession, pressure on their asset portfolios, and the increased risk of loan defaults when rates are higher. Moreover, after mass withdrawals of customer deposits caused major problems at several banks this year, smaller lenders are pulling back in fear of further bank runs, raising the prospect of a credit crunch.

Steeper rates also erode the relative appeal of real estate to investors because they boost the yields from bonds and savings accounts.

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